City Council should extend time limit for speaking

I encourage Harrisburg City Council to adopt a New Year's resolution extending the time that citizens are allowed to speak at City Council meetings. The current policy allows citizens to speak for three minutes. If the comments are not wrapped up in that time, the gavel comes crashing down and the council president repeatedly yells "security," a signal to any police officer in council chambers to remove the offender for exceeding their three minutes.

With Harrisburg on the verge of bankruptcy and the state threatening a great fire sale of city assets, Harrisburg residents have a lot on their minds and have strong feelings about the city's future. The least City Council members could do is to give citizens a few more minutes to express themselves in the hope that council members will listen to their concerns and ideas.